Retail Lessons from Las Vegas Vacation Part 1 of 3 – Use of Video

Over the Christmas holidays I spent 5 days in Las Vegas visiting friends and ring in the new year in the city that never sleeps. Over the years Las Vegas continues to transform itself to keep itself relevant from the original sin city and gambling capital to the modern convention/vacation destination.

I spent new year’s eve with 320,000 visitors which is an impressive number by any standards, plus I managed to do some shopping and visiting a few attractions between visiting friends.

I thought I’d share my observations on how Las Vegas continues to delight visitors in a series of blogs and what retailers can learn from it.

Today’s I’d like to focus on the use of video technology for customers in Las Vegas

One of the first impression when you walk in is that it doesn’t look like a video screen but backlit wall panels. Only when the images start moving do you realize it is a video wall. As you can see from the video

The entire experience is seamless, the video is there to provide entertainment but in a subtle way. The fixture completely blends in with the surrounding interior design and enhances the mood of the environment rather than draw attention to itself. Of course we see people stand there watching the video wall transform in slow motion which adds to the appeal. The key is people are looking at the content and not commenting how big the screens are.

Many of the casino hotels have directories due to the sheer size of the property and the number of attractions. Many are switching from traditional static maps to interactive kiosk that will provide listing of services, directions and promotion video. This one from Paris Hotel and Casino provided directions and listing to help guide visitors. Again, blended in, with the color scheme of the property on display.

This one is interesting when I first saw the giant blue Twitter logo on the wall behind the reception desk of the MGM Grand hotel, then the Twitter feed scrolling down. The screen does animate to other casino promotions. It is the largest Twitter indoor sign that streams Twitter #tag feed I have seen. In New York City Times Square the sign above Forever 21 also displays Tweets with appropriate # tags (I will shoot some pictures of that when I am at National Retail Federation 2012 January 16-17. Interesting distraction for when you are waiting in line during check in or check out.

What seems to work the best for video technology is that they are designed to integrate to the environment and draws attention to the content rather than the technology. In all the instances they are integrated to the room design and architecture and the content drives the attention more than the technology of the screen. Establishments that have the screens set up looking like a sports bar or computer screens rather than integrated into the environment generally don’t get the results they want.

In the next blog, I will be taking a look at how Las Vegas does Omni-Channel customer experience.

If you are visiting National Retail Federation Conference Expo in New York on January 16th and 17th, please drop by and visit me at Cisco booth #851 and Big Idea Session titled “Catch ‘em and Keep ‘em. Satisfying Today’s Shopper” on omnichannel retailing.

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